Bern it Down: How the DNC is Stealing the Election

A story recently broke inciting a firestorm of criticism within the Democratic party. Bernie Sanders’ campaign has been suspended by the Democratic National Committee for allegedly breaching a firewall and accessing the private information of the Clinton campaign. Sanders’ campaign will continue to be suspended, and unable to access their own information, until they can prove that they no longer possess any data considered the property of their opponent.

The problem, on the surface, seems to involve a Sanders staffer who acted in an unethical manner, and has since been let go. The real questions though, are why, if the Sanders campaign notified the DNC of the security failure, did they do nothing? Why did the DNC choose to leak this story? Why, a day before the final Democratic debate of the year, did the DNC possibly expose it’s own negligence to the American public?

They’re scared.

Why? Bernie Sanders recently surpassed the 2 million individual donor milestone (For reference, the Obama campaign had just over 1 million at this same time in 2008, before eventually surpassing Clinton and defeating her in the primary).

The Sanders campaign, on Thursday, announced that it had secured two major endorsements. One, from the Communications Workers of America, a 700,000 member union, and another from Democracy for America, chaired by Howard Dean’s brother Jim, which boasts 90% of its membership backs Sanders.

These are just the recent accomplishments of Sanders. He has held the lead in New Hampshire for awhile, pulled very close in Iowa, and has been drawing massive crowds across the country for nearly the entire duration of his campaign.

But, the DNC, and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, have long decided that it is Hillary’s turn. They limited the debates to six, ignoring Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, and a large portion of democratic voters who argued for more. They even threatened candidates with disqualification from running if they participated in any debate not officially sanctioned by the DNC.

Now, they took the risk of implicating themselves and their negligence, by leaking the story of the data breach to the mainstream media. The fact is that NGP VAN, the private third-party company hired by the DNC, is responsible for leaving this sensitive information unprotected. And the DNC is responsible for trusting NGP VAN with keeping it safe.

Now, it may be argued that while NGP VAN is responsible for keeping the data secure, it is each campaign’s responsibility to uphold their ethical commitment, and not knowingly breach the firewall. The response to this is simple.

Why, and how, have thousands of Sanders supporters and donors, who have not willingly provided their private information to the Clinton campaign, received unsolicited requests for donations over the past eight days?

A Sanders supporter contacted us, and forwarded three emails received on December 10, 11, and 13 of this year from info@hillaryclinton.com. Like many others, she subscribes to the “Bernie or bust” mantra, and has never willingly given contact information to the Clinton campaign. How could the Clinton camp possibly secure the email addresses of thousands of Sanders donors?

The aforementioned security failure, and the DNC’s lack of action. That may seem like a stretch, verging on conspiracy theory to some. But, let’s consider some other facts.

NGA VAN, the vendor responsible for the security failure, is a Washington, D.C. Based technology company founded by Nathaniel Pearlman. According to his LinkedIn profile, Pearlman also served as the CTO for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for president.

The current CEO of NGP VAN, Stu Trevelyan, served on the Clinton/Gore campaign from 1992-’93, and as a Legislative Assistant in the White House from 1993-’94.

Sanders has claimed, and garnered support based on, running an ethically sound campaign from the start. Without having to actually do so himself, this has pitted him strongly against the Democratic frontrunner based on her past scandals. If one were to attempt to undermine their challenger, one strategy would be to attack their strengths. In this case, Sanders’ ethics.

And, you know, suspend his campaign until they prove they no longer possess information, which is a nearly impossible task. They may also hold hostage all voter information, which is vital to a grassroots campaign such as Sanders’, in an attempt to cripple his White House bid.

Considering Hillary’s tendency to flip-flop on issues such as the TPP and gay marriage, and for invoking sentiments of 9/11 when questioned on the issue of income inequality as a result of Wall Street’s historic ’08 meltdown, her, Wasserman-Schultz, and the DNC’s panache while constantly reminding us that she could be the first female president becomes much more understandable.

They are nothing but carnival barkers who view the voting process and the interest of Americans as another obstacle on the way to their Pennsylvania Avenue residency. They are using any tool available to elect who they want, including media manipulation, lies, and deception. They have highjacked the Democratic party, and are systematically redefining the definition of democracy.

If the democrats plan on winning in 2016, this is not how it’s done. They have created a situation in which Sanders, effectively the second most powerful democratic presidential candidate, who was nearly Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, has gone to the extreme measure of filing a lawsuit against the DNC.

An online petition started this morning, which urges Wasserman-Schultz and the DNC to relinquish Sanders’ voter data, has garnered over 215,000 signatures.

There has been an ongoing narrative within the Democratic party of unity versus divisiveness. Sanders versus Clinton. Progressive versus establishment. It is a well known fact that for a political party to win in the general election, it must first heal the wounds inflicted during the primaries.

The DNC, Wasserman-Schultz, and Clinton, have effectively put their interests ahead of yours. In doing so, they have inflicted a wound upon democrats/progressives so severe, it can only be likened to completely severing a limb, incinerating it, then burying it a mile underground in an undisclosed location.

Many lifelong democrats and progressives have been shunned and ignored, and the establishment will like you to believe it is all their fault.